THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 169 



Lamarck wrote : "In the waters of the ancient 

 world and at the present time very small masses 

 of mucilaginous matter were collected. Under 

 the influence of light, certain elements, caloric 

 and electric, entered these little bodies. These 

 corpuscles became capable of taking in and ex- 

 haling gases, vital movement began, and thus an 

 elemental plant or animal sprang into existence." 



As long ago as 1809 O^^^ speculated that every 

 organic thing had risen out of sea-slime. " Every 

 organic thing," he wrote, "has risen out of slime, 

 and is nothing but slime in different forms. This 

 organic slime originated in the sea, from inorganic 

 matter in the course of planetary evolution. The 

 origin of life ' generatio originaria ' occurred upon 

 the shores where water, air, and earth were joined." 

 Again : " All life is from the sea ; the whole sea 

 is alive. Love rose out of the sea- foam . . . ." 

 " Man also is the offspring of some warm and 

 gentle seashore, and probably rose in India, where 

 the first peaks appeared above the water. A 

 certain mingling of water, of blood-warmth, and of 

 atmosphere must have conjoined for his produc- 

 tion, and this may have happened only once and 

 at one spot." 



Bastian claims, as we have said, to have found 

 living germs produced in various inorganic solu- 

 tions simply by a synthesis of the necessary atoms. 



